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Monday, 11 March 2019

The 2019 British Bank Awards took place on Thursday 7th March. 27,000 customers were asked to vote across a spectrum of categories. The aim of the event was to reward the best products, innovations and the most trusted financial brands of the UK banking industry.

A big night for Fintech

Fintech and new businesses, most founded within the last 10 years, dominated the awards over the traditional institutions.

Starling Bank, a UK digital challenger bank founded in 2014, was the big winner of the night, taking home 3 prizes including the coveted Best British Bank award, seeing off competition from the traditional UK high street banks such as Lloyds TSB, Barclays and RBS.

Starling bank offers their customers a fully digital service, driven principally through their mobile banking application. On top of credit card and account management services, Starling offers peer-to-peer payments enabling customers to send money direct to their friends/others. Starling also offers a user friendly approach to saving for specific trips or objectives.

Other notable firms receiving awards were Mojo Mortgages, Monzo, Due Dil, Bud, and our great friends at 11:FS who won consultancy of the year, beating off the likes of Capgemini, Deloitte, Capco to win the award.

Mojo Mortgages is a digital mortgage broker founded in 2016. They offer an online platform for mortgage application. Their service promises personalized recommendation from qualified advisors at any time, without needing to go to a physical branch. Applicants have no fees, no countless paperwork and can obtain their mortgage much faster.

Monzo was founded in London in 2015 and is a digital-only banking platform. Their target are customers with smartphones, who want their transactions to be done in a click and do not want to go through a physical branch to manage their account.

A tipping point in Financial Services?

There has been debate as to whether mass market customers were really adopting new Fintech solutions, that the traditional institutions offer services that are good enough. With the number of votes cast by the public, those that are mathematically inclined will recognize that these results are significant as a representative sample of the Birtish public.

It seems times are changing, that the new challenger services seem to be swaying customers with their user friendly and customer centric solutions. A wake up call of for British banking and beyond, European banking. Doing what you have always done, will give customer what they have always got; perhaps it is time to question deeply whether customers want what they have always got, or whether they want something new.

All the winners:

Best British Bank: Starling Bank

Innovation of the Year: Mojo Mortgages

Customer Service Champion: Dudley Building Society

Treating Customers Fairly Champion: Close Brothers Savings

Best Newcomer: evestor

Best Banking App: Monzo

Best Current Account Provider: Starling Bank

Best Mortgage Provider: NatWest

Best Specialist Mortgage Provider: Darlington Building Society

Best Mortgage Broker: Mojo Mortgages

Best Credit Card Provider: Virgin Money

Best Savings Provider: Vernon Building Society

Best Business Banking Provider: Starling Bank

Best Business Finance Provider: Nucleus Commercial Finance

Best Investments Provider: WiseAlpha

Best Personal Finance App: Chip

Best Personal Loan Provider: Zopa

Best Alternative Finance Provider: Satago

Best Travel Money Provider: WeSwap

Best Share Trading Platform: Freetrade

The Pioneer Award: Bud

Regtech Vendor of the Year: DueDil

Technology Vendor of the Year: DPR

Consultancy of the Year: 11 :FS

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